The industrial style of black metal is a tough nut to crack. You've got arguably the genre's perfectors Blut Aus Nord now performing at their peak and a whole slew of other acts somewhere in between aiming to try and recapture some of those same evocative images and nebulous atmospheres desperately ever since the emergence of Mysticum back in 1993. Transparent Vibrant Shadows is the debut of Lithuanian act Haeiresis and aspires to fall somewhere in between the vast suffocating celestial atmospheres of Darkspace and the horror induced progression of The Axis of Perdition.

Unlike traditional black metal it doesn't aim to unsettle the listener through a mass of satanic propaganda and exhaustive blasting, it follows a more reserved approach aiming to disorientate you through harsh impenetrable dissonance. There's shrill industrial rhythms abound and together with the inaccessibility of it all proves a hard listen for the uninitiated to the genre. The guitar passages are excessively technical and are what really brings the comparisons to The Axis of Perdition; nonstop treble high atonal and obscure leads together with off-beat riffing. Technically I would have to admit the guitar playing here is fantastic, but it lacks any real flow and structure and you'll end up finding yourself overwhelmed by a whirlwind of incohesive and lifeless noodling which detracts hugely from the atmosphere.

Of course as now appears to be the accepted norm in a genre such as this, S.B. employs the use of a pretty shitty drum machine in an aim to strengthen the industrial racket which really only succeeds in increasing the monotony of it all. The vocals, to be frank, are fucking awful; thickly muffled incomprehensible rasps that sound like someone dragging a plank of wood across a concrete floor, I mean if there was as much effort put into the vocals as the guitar work then it wouldn't be so bad. It's not all bad though; "Transmigrating Corridors II" forsakes all metal elements completely for a vast sweeping spatial atmosphere that genuinely is horrifying. This is the sound I expected to hear coming into Transparent Vibrant Shadows and it only plays a brief cameo. It's certainly something more in the vein of Darkspace and maybe something he should focus on more in the future for it's the best track on the release.

Technically the other songs are all well performed but it seems too much emphasis was placed upon the guitar and not enough in other areas which are severely lacking. It's completely devoid of any personality and sounds all too detached lacking the dreaded, nerve-splitting and apocalyptic soundscapes that the other bands mentioned do so well. For what it is it's just about passable, I've heard much worse attempts in this area, but it's just far too lacklustre and soulless to ever threaten the upper tiers currently inhabited by bands like The Axis of Perdition and Blut Aus Nord.